thirty-two;* in Venice, one in twenty-three ;t in Naples, one in twenty-one or twenty-four.‡ In the Netherlands, the ratio varied from one in twenty to one in twenty-nine. In New-York, the births were rather more than one twenty-sixth part of the people. In Russia, the census of 1820 made their nativities there rather more than one in twenty-five.T In Switzerland the proportion was, in some parts, one in thirty-six.** From these instances we may infer that one in twenty is the highest number that are born in any known population, and less than one in fifty the lowest amount that have been observed. Here, again, appear two natural and established limits, which preclude any augmentation or decline in nations beyond these boundaries. So many as one in twenty, and so few as one in fifty, to a population are nowhere born; but the actual nativities which are to form the new generations are always within these bounding extremes, or very nearly so. But if we take the lowest of these, even that ratio is fatal to the Malthusian theory; for if the births were continuously one in twenty in a nation, then a twentieth part of it would be born every year; and, consequently, it would require twenty years to pass before as many could be born as would equal the coexisting population. * At Maurienne, in Savoy, the average of births in twenty years, from 1810, was one in 30-1 in the Alpine regions, one in 31.9 in the middle grounds, and one in thirty-two in the lower parishes, where the vine was chiefly cultivated.-Bull. Univ., July, 1831, p. 256. † Signor Quadri states the average of the births at Venice, during the five years from 1819, to have been one in twenty-three. Dr. Calcagni, in his Tavole di Palermo, found that, for the ten years from 1805, the ratio was one to twenty-one; and in the subsequent ten years, one in twenty-four. Mr. Sadler has collected the proportion of the provinces chiefly from Quetelet. The Dutch portion was from the rate of one in 20.7 in Zealand to 27.1 in Friesland. The Flemish part varied from 26.1 in South Brabant to 307 at Antwerp.-Sadler, vol. ii., p. 449. In the census of the state of New-York for 1825, the population was returned to be 1,616,433, and the births 60,383 for the preceding year.National Gazette, Feb., 1826. The Greek Church population of Russia was found to be, in 1820, 40,351,000, and the births of that year 1,570,399.-Sadler, vol. ii., p. 66. **In the Pays de Vaud it was found by Muret to be one to thirty-six. In one little village of only 400 persons it was only one in forty-nine -Malthus, vol. i., p. 381-404. But this was too small a place, and too peculiarly situated to be any example of a general law. In another parish in the Jura, St. Cergue, "the births were a twenty-sixth part of the population."-Malthus, 404. But to equal is not to double; therefore twenty more years of the same rate of births must ensue before the numbers would be doubled. But these would make together forty years. So that the greatest number that have been known to be anywhere born could not double the population in twenty-five years. one. But this proportion of one in twenty is a local and a rare The more common proportions are from one in twentyfive to one in thirty. At the rate of twenty-five a year, the time of duplication would be near fifty; at that of thirty it would approximate sixty. But all these periods the regular laws of death considerably elongate. In all these inquiries, we must likewise recollect that the question as between man and Providence, that is, between mankind and the yearly produce of the earth, is not what amount of human beings is produced in any particular country, but what number the varying rates of birth in every country cause to be alive in their totality as contemporaries over the whole earth; for then we shall find that, if more arise in one nation, fewer come into being in another. So that the correct inquiry will be, at all times, What is the general result of all these laws and ratios, in comparing the entire quantity of coexisting mankind? Then we shall find that the more in some places and the fewer in others mingle together in a certain level average, which is the actual exhibition of the real increase of the earth's population, and of the practical agency of the laws of human births. It is with this total average that the provisions for our subsistence are to be always compared; for we have found, in all ages, that as one country, from any cause, needs more food, others have always a redundancy of it to supply their wants; and it has ever been one of the earnest objects of commerce to convey corn and nutriment from the abundant regions to those where the relieving cargoes are required. There seem to be some other ancient laws about birth which deserve our attentive study, to see if they are well founded. One of these is the circumstance remarked by Mr. Sadler and others, that they vary according to the density of the population where they occur, most births taking place where the people are fewest, or most scattered on a given place.* *"The prolificness of human beings varies in proportion to their con VOL. III-K Another fact has been also noticed, that births increase when the deaths become more frequent; here the connected cause has not been satisfactorily accounted for, and seems to be linked with something more than human or common agencies.* It has also been observed, that the most births appear (and reckoning nine months back from the time of their occurrence, that the commencement of the human formation takes place) more frequently in some months of the year than others. Natural causes, arising from unknown effects of the as unknown atmospherical changes or moving agencies at the different seasons of the year,t may contribute to these results. densation. It is greatest where the numbers on an equal space are fewest. It is smallest where the numbers are largest."-Sadler, vol. ii., p. 352. He has thus computed and distinguished, in this respect, the differences of the births in England to 100 marriages. Where the population on the square mile isFrom 50 to 100, the births are 100 to 150 150 to 200 200 to 250 250 to 300 300 to 350 500 and upward 427 414 406 402 392 375 332 Ib., p. 400. "The prolificness is greater where the mortality is greater: smaller where the mortality is less."-Sadler, ib., 355. Ferussac remarks on this point, "Another result is, that the births are Malthus and Valermi agree in this, in a direct ratio to the mortality." but say that the fact has not its principal source in a law of nature; but, whatever be the cause, M. Quetelet has verified the fact, even in the dif ferent months of the year, as he showed in his "Memoir on the Mortality of Brussels." M. Lobatto verified it also in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Ghent, Rotterdam, and the Hague.-Bull. Univ., 1827, p. 92. Mr. Verelst found the mean results of eighteen years' observations at Brussels to be FIRST PERIOD. May July MONTHS OF BIRTH. BIRTHS. 1.1570 1.0991 April 1-0790 April January 1.0403 March December 1.0175 0-9893 February November 0.9679 September June 0.9599 January December 0.9033 October July 0.9012 Bull. Univ., 1827, p 92. It has also been observed, that the births occur more numerously in a morning than in the evening.* In all these peculiarities, in proportion as they prevail and recur, the features of plan, and regulating agency, and of providing foresight, and I think, also, of superintending government, appear, to our contemplation, accomplishing determined purposes and operating to an assigned end. LETTER XIII. The Laws of Death considered.-Their Adjustment to the Laws of Birth.-Statement of their Rate and Proportions in different Coun tries. MY DEAR SYDNEY, Let us now endeavour to trace the laws and principles on which the withdrawing and destroying agency of DEATH is administered as to the human race. The consequences which follow from it are very extensive and multifarious. But we Mr. Lemaire's average of twenty years, from 1806 to 1825, at Tourmay, has many similarities to this. I will cite only his months of the births. Bull. Univ., 1827, 95. * At Brussels, the nativities, from 1811 to 1822, in the Hospital de Maternité there, were found to take place in the following numbers at the different hours: Mr. Villermi found analogous results in the Hospital of Maternities at Paris.-Bull. Univ., ib, will confine ourselves to a consideration of the system which has been established as to its operation on our population, and to the laws by which it is made to regulate the state and numbers of the human race, in their several national aggregations and general amount. The laws of death, as soon as we begin to study them, are easily discerned to be much more peculiar and complicated than those of marriage or birth. I have already objected to the consideration of it only as a check, and repeat the caution to avoid a term that misleads. Death is as much a principle in the formation of human nature as birth and marriage, and has invariably accompanied both. It has been always, since the days of Adam, an essential part of the Divine plan as to mankind, that all who are born shall die. This was made, from the beginning, a fundamental law, as soon as our first parents showed that both themselves and their descendants would not submit to be trained and taught by their Divine Preceptor. Certain, by this decision, and by acting as they chose, in disregard and disobedience to him, that they would not spontaneously become, as he desired, such improved, and admirable, and congenial beings as he meant to immortalize, he ordained that their existence on the earth on which he placed them should not be perpetual. The operation which we call death was appointed to terminate, in all, the temporary connexion of their intellectual soul with its earth-formed body, and to remove the living principle elsewhere. Death is, therefore, as inseparable from birth as that is from marriage; all three are original and essential parts of our system of human nature in its present residence. Neither occurs without the other; each is alike important-each has been adapted to the other. Death is, therefore, one of the primitive laws of our life on earth, and of the organic constitution of our frame. Our body is so made that it must die, as it is at present composed, and as its functions are arranged. No art or means can prevent its dissolution, or the departure of its animating spirit, when the agencies occur that are to effectuate the change. Violence may accelerate the time, which skill may a while protract, but nothing on earth can eventually avert it. If death had not been made a part of the present economy of our being, the system of our births could not be what it is; nor could mankind be either what they have been or what they |